Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Travelers and tourists always try to find places around the world that abound in the cultural, traditional and folk heritage of a country they are visiting. Besides vising archaeological sites, the best place to study the history, art and culture of a country are the museums. For instance ask me which museum I would like to visit if I get a chance, my choice would be the Smithsonian Museum of Science and Technology, New York USA - a museum that abounds in all the scientific inventions since time immemorial.

Some of the private museums

But there is a different kind of museums - the private museum, owned by people privately that have collection of artifacts and other valuable historic objects and paintings in possession of an individual or a family. The best thing about these museums is that these are quieter than the usual museums which over burst with museum enthusiasts and tourists specially during hot tourist and holiday seasons.

These museums generally are based on one theme, owing to the taste of the owner and his special collection. There are such gem-like collections in every corner of the globe. Some are hiding in plain sight, in well-known capital cities, while others are sequestered away in remote settings that require a sense of adventure—or, at least, a reliable GPS—to find. And some, like pop star George Michael’s Goss-Michael Foundation in Dallas, are the culmination of a collector’s particular obsession (in this case, contemporary British art), while others, like the famed Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, span a range of eras and genres. Places like the Salvador Dalí Museum in the Surrealist master’s hometown of Figueres, Spain, offer a comprehensive paean to a single artist, says Emma Sloley at Mashable.

I recently came across a collection of ten such museums as compiled by Mashable and I thought to share with my readers - an information that may come handy if any happens to be around these places and the information may take one to these special places to enjoy and admire the collector and the owner for his/her taste and for sharing the collection with others.

These ten museums are:

Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy

Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia

Beyeler Museum, Basel, Switzerland

The Dalí Theatre-Museum, Figueres, Spain

Goss-Michael Foundation, Dallas, Texas

Hess Collection, Napa, California

MALBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Mathaf, Doha, Qatar

Miho Museum, Shiga, Japan

MONA, Hobart, Australia

Read more about each these museums and their specialties at:: Mashable